Under the pseudonym Nimiety Enterprises, above depicts my photo and art direction for Rhino Records fourth ever release, Twist Again with the Low Numbers. (I also was employed to shoot and art direct Rhino's second and third releases, Rhino Royale with its wrestling theme and Saturday Night Pogo, the first L.A. punk compilation see LINK.)
I show the top, salient half of the record album because I shot it in 1978 in front of the Sheik al Fassi mansion at 9577 Sunset Blvd., Beverly Hills, Calif., the one with pubic hair notoriously painted on the outside Italianate nude statuary in front of the manse.
The Low Numbers themselves had suggested pastoral gauziness in Franklin Canyon a la at least 1,000 album covers trying to ape the Rolling Stones' High Tide and Green Grass cover shot by Guy Webster. But I wanted something sui generis, and placed them in front of the 38-room mansion and nudes while, yes, twisting. I believe that Steve Martin's subsequent comedy film "The Jerk" was the only other location shoot of note thereupon.
The Sheik's indulgences were legion, as architects marveled at his carpeting all of his rooms in all colors available, ripping up and replacing each successive color carpet until he decided on just the right hue; and his private bowling alley with the neon signs that lit up spelling "Good one Mohammed!" at each strike. The City of Beverly Hills itself marveled then transmogrified into a veritable lynch mob issuing constant citations. When the mansion burned to the ground two years later, most of Beverly Hills came to chant "Burn! Burn! Burn!" when the copper roof finally collapsed.
Sheik al Fassi then moved to Florida where annoyed billionaire neighbors complained of the sheik's goats escaping and ruining their lawns and posh landscaping. Our mega-rich young troublemaker despite possessing the riches of Croesus had a short-ish life, dying at age 50 in 2002.
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